Why start a travel blog now? After just finishing my three month bicycle tour across Europe and still figuring out my next move?
To be honest there’s no single reason to completely explain. It may have been after staring at the hundreds of travel photos stored on my computer desktop and trying to devise a method how to organize them. Or after stumbling upon inspiring travel blogs online, asking myself why I can’t make one of my own.
So after spending 6 years living abroad and for whatever the reason, I’ve finally felt it worthwhile to document my most memorable travels online. And of course, plenty of photos included.
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
– Saint Augustine
This blog isn’t only just a way just to show my friends and family I’m alive, because I’m aware I’ve dropped off the face of the earth for days, or even weeks at a time without communication (I’ve gotten better since then). Then my Facebook status would check into an exotic location along with a few photos and witty comment posted.
This platform also serves to document my memories across five continents so far (and counting). So I’ll have something to reminisce when I hopefully reach the ripe old age of 90 years old and it’s difficult to remember what I ate that morning.
Blogging is a chance to communicate with the people I’m closest to back home, and hopefully inspire others to take time away from their 9-5 job and travel. Even if its just one special destination they’ve always wanted to explore.
How did my traveling reach this point?
It all started in 2012, when I quit my Project Engineering position within the Construction Management field I studied back in California. I took what little savings I had and bought a one way ticket to backpack across Europe for the next half year. I had no clue what I was doing, nor had a final destination in mind, but there was always an allure to living and working in Europe.
That big moment came one evening in a hostel while in Regensburg, Germany. I came across an English teacher who told me of a teaching opportunity which seemed too good to be true. At this point I was single, no job, living on savings with no reason nor desire to return to the states to work in my field that I lacked a sense of fulfillment.
So I took him up on his offer figuring I had nothing to lose, and took the Deutsche Bahn train to Münster, Germany. There I interviewed for a teaching job where I had no experience or qualifications whatsoever. Only a desire to live and work in Europe.
What followed next was a freelance English teaching position for German Customs Administration. A position which required no prior work experience, provided a one year working visa, along with all the necessary materials to teach in front of a group of 10 students aged 20-40 years old. It was up to myself to gradually learn the proper teaching methods so I didn’t prove to be an embarrassment to the students in front of the whiteboard.
Over the following months, I expanded my scope of freelance opportunities to teach courses including Business English, private lessons, and Summer Camp for children. A flexible work schedule and decent hourly pay of $18/hr allowed me to take frequent trips in my spare time around Europe.
Thanks to the list of low cost budget airlines in the region, I took advantage of Skyscanner to search for roundtrip flights for as little as $35. Because of this, I got to explore countries including Romania, Poland, Portugal and Austria. Had you told me this information two years prior, I probably would have taken you for crazy.
Eventually the allure of teaching English began to wear off. It’s really one of those jobs you have to have a passion for, because the money will never be there. Even with a country with such a low cost of living such as Germany, where my small one room studio was $220/month, a week’s worth of groceries for my large appetite ran only $50, and I traveled everywhere by bike in the self proclaimed “Bicycle Capital of Germany”. I needed to find another career which would still allow me to see exotic lands while padding my bank account at the same time.
Fast forward to today…
Which takes me to my most recent period in life – yachting. An industry I only recently became familiar even existed, let alone how many opportunities it could offer a habitual nomad like myself. An industry which seems to be operating in sense of fantasy world at times, yet non disclosure agreements restrict some of the best details getting spilled.
So at this moment, I may be working on a yacht 1000 miles from the nearest land. Or planning my next bucket list item such as reaching Everest Base Camp. But whatever it is, it’s likely to include a little of the unknown…while mentioning some details on this blog, and hopefully enjoying a beer at the same time.